Martinez Deal: A custom card game for my family
Project Summary
I come from a very large extended family and whenever we get together, my cousins and I love playing Monopoly Deal, the card game version of Monopoly. One year on Twitter, I saw that an illustrator redesigned a beloved Christmas board game for his family with his own twist on it and they absolutely loved it. I was like wait.. I can totally also redesign a game.
I designed custom cards, packaging, and then gifted it to my extended family for Christmas.
Planning
Before designing, I used my existing card deck and did an audit of all the cards to understand how the game was setup.
Then, I defined what was fair to customize versus what to preserve for the balance of the game.
Preserve for game
Rules
Types of cards
Quantity of each card
Monetary value of each card
Overall layout of each card
Customize
Colors
Fonts
Illustrations
Property Names
Action Names
While I felt that the existing Monopoly branding was appropriate for the official board game and subsequent card games, I wanted to create something more friendly and lighthearted for my family. The game as it was felt like old school, Mad Men era business. I identified my own themes I wanted Martinez Deal to embody.
Fun
Friendly
Unique to our family
Representing Chicago and Los Angeles (where most of my family is based)
Filipino culture
Branding
One of the things I was most excited about was choosing property names that my family would recognize and see themselves in.
Choosing property names by location
The actual Monopoly game used different street names, so I tried that for my first iteration. While individual family members would be able to recognize their street name, it might be hard for them to recognize other people’s street names. I decided to abstract it a bit and instead use the different cities people live in, which are much more likely to be recognized. (For example, I am the only family member that lives in New York, and it’s very unlikely my family would know my random street name, but if they see “Brooklyn Ave” they would know that represented me.
Customizing Property Cards
Thoughtfully grouping property cards
Aside from customizing the property names, I thought it would be cute to group related properties under the same color.
Location
I grouped the 2 families that live in California together in yellow
Family
I put 3 of my cousins’ (all siblings) cities in the same group
Adding in Family Easter eggs
After grouping the cities together, I still had a few groups of property left and used those groups to reference family businesses, the city of Chicago, and favorite sports teams.
Turning Railroad cards into Chicago L Train lines
Using Utility cards to honor family businesses like the rice store my grandparents owned in the Philippines and the grocery store my aunt and uncle own in Illinois ❤️
Finally, whenever my cousins and I play this game we end up getting really competitive and (passionately) yelling at each other. I wanted to add in a common Filipino phrase that we could say while playing.
I replaced the “Just say no” card (which can block any action) with a Tagalog phrase that translates to “I don’t like that!” 🙅🏻♀️
Production
Paper Prototypes
Once I finalized the designs for the cards and box, I made paper prototypes to test them out before placing my final orders.
Assembly
I ordered the instructions set to be printed on postcards and had to use a separate vendor. After scoring and folding the post cards, and writing personal Christmas greetings on them, I wrapped each box individually for each family member. 🤶
Family Response
Design Systems are everywhere
I’ve designed for print a few times prior to this project but I never realized how systematic it was until designing these cards. I got to reuse many skills I typically use when designing products, but in a more fun, light-hearted way.
Love is in the details
Thoughtfulness comes across in the small details
My family is one (small) step closer to understanding what I do for a living 😂
While most of my family still doesn’t understand my career, it felt really good to show them a tangible version of what my design work can look like. ❤️